This paper presents highlights of three generations of software and hardware platforms that have been used in fifty years of automated fatigue crack growth rate testing. Fundamental similarities as well as vast improvements in performance and efficiency are included in this discussion. Despite advances in technology, many principal concepts have remained intact. Of particular interest is how software and system methodology has evolved from the time when processor memory cost $1 per byte to today's cost of less than $0.10 per gigabyte. The first three generations substantially improved platform capability, ease of use, and cost benefits. Over a span of 50 years, a linear-log relationship existed such that processor speed and memory size parameters increased by over an order of magnitude per decade. Memory costs were reduced by even greater magnitudes. The challenges of introducing a fourth-generation platform almost 25 years after the third generation are an important topic of this paper. Given that the third-generation platform was adequate for the tasks at hand, emphasis is placed on the need to maintain compatibility with present-day operating systems, software tools, and hardware obsolescence.